“Stop Ne(c)king around”: How interactomics contributes to functionally characterize Nek family kinases

Figure 5 Functional overlap in the human Nek kinase family: seven of eleven Neks participate in two and one Nek in all three of the main core functions of the Nek family (centrosome-related mitosis, primary cilia and DNA damage response). The three corners of the triangle represent each a key concept function for the Nek family, e.g., Nek9 and 11 sole involvement in mitosis[66,67] and DDR[73] respectively, has been well documented. The Nek names and bold lines represent cases where accumulated experimental evidence strongly suggests a regulatory role for that Nek in that context or in both of the contexts the line connects: Nek1[2,22,23]; Nek2[123]; Nek4[9,53] (Basei et al unpublished); Nek6[3]; Nek7[67]; Nek8[8,10]; Nek10[74]. The thinner lines represent our own group’s preliminary or unpublished interaction data (both from yeast two-hybrid system and immunoprecipitation coupled to mass spectrometry analysis data), suggestive of a participation of that Nek in both connected functions (Nek7: Souza et al, unpublished).